The Aperture in my Heart
by matrixjorel
Summary: Luna has been banished to the moon by her sister. After 1000 years in isolation, the poor alicorn is truly sorry for what she did and is ready to come home. But then a strange visitor comes and changes everything...
1. Chapter 1

Moon? MOON!

"Why do you want this?"

"The people will love me, I will make them! They thought they could just ignore my wonderful work, how DARE THEY!"

"Luna… sister… why must you do this?" Celestia knew this fight was finally coming to a close, and it had to. If she didn't stop Nightmare Moon now, then she would bring about an endless night on all of Equestria. But this was her last chance to reach out to her sister, who she knew was still in there somewhere, just lost and confused.

"I, Nightmare Moon, will cause the sun to never rise again; the moon will be all the ponies will see, and I will lead these ponies into a new empire!" Nightmare Moon's laugh was heard from 100 miles away, haunting the ears of any mare of colt unfortunate enough to hear it. It was a laugh of true evil.

Celestia knew it had to be done. She closed her eyes, not wanting to see what would happen next.

When she opened her eyes to the dark blue mare, they were not Celestia's eyes. It seemed that light poured out from them as she tapped into the powers of the Elements of Harmony. This sight was formidable enough to cause even the powerful Nightmare Moon to feel fear. The end was near, and both alicorns knew it.

"NIGHTMARE MOON, YOUR CRIMES AGAINST PONYKIND ARE UNFORGIVABLE" The princess of the sun spoke in an otherworldly voice. It echoed, and seemed to fade and get louder within Nightmare Moon's ears. Surely the Elements were powerful, but were they really capable of such strange wonders? "AS PUNISHMENT FOR YOUR ACTIONS, I HEREBY BANISH YOU TO THE PLACE YOU LOVE MOST—THE MOON!"

Light began to blind the evil alicorn. There was nothing she could do; the light felt like rope that bound her to an invisible stake in the ground beneath her. Try as she might, there was no escape. She closed her eyes. The last thing she heard was "I'm sorry, Luna." Then…

…

Luna woke up from another fitful night of sleep; that is, if you could call it sleep. She had been in isolation for so long, the days no longer held any value to her. For all she knew she was asleep for years. But it always seemed that the poor ex-princess had the same nightmare every time she closed her eyes.

A thousand years changes a pony, and the mare known as Nightmare Moon was no exception. Hate turned to anger, which turned to grudges, which turned to self-pity, then remorse, then genuine guilt. Luna knew now that she was wrong. All she wanted was to return home.

"Home", she uttered in her daze. A place where other ponies live with you, where you have loved ones by your side. A place where you were always safe, comfortable, and well fed. A place that she missed more than almost anything. But even more than home, she missed her elder sister. The pony that taught her love and kindness, who never doubted her little sister even when she doubted herself, the pony that she let down in a way that was unforgivable.

She came from time to time to visit. Not in the last hundred years, but she would come by. But that was back when Nightmare Moon still had a hold over Luna. Princess Celestia would come, and determine if her sister was ready to come back, and wait for an answer. Every time it was a 'no'. But Luna still remembers her sister's face every time she came. It was a look of disappointment— nay, it was a look of disgust, a look that conveyed to the now remorseful alicorn that she could never come back. The worst part was she didn't even blame her older sister.

"Sister… I'm sorry… can I please come home? I'll be good, I promise. I love you..." Luna croaked. Even though she was technically immortal, she could still suffer from things like dehydration. She had been thirsty for as long as she could remember, so she always kept the talking to a minimum. But if there was even the slightest chance that her sister was out there, she would scream her loudest, in her official Canterlot voice, begging for Celestia to take her home. But that was far-fetched. No amount of wishing could save her; she had to stop dreaming that something or someone would just… fall from the sky to come save her.

Luna got up, and decided to go for a walk. It was the first one she had in at least 30 years. Most of her solitude had been spent immobile. She decided to go see the only interesting sight she knew of on this world of a prison.

"Hello again, friends!" The sight of her only two companions always seemed to lift her mood, even if it was only marginally. They were always quiet, but they were company; company that Luna was grateful for. The only problem was they never spoke. Luna didn't even know what kind of ponies they were.

The first one was a very tall pony with 4 skinny legs, and a white coat of very hard and cold fur. She could tell that she was always cold, because she wore a huge and shiny orange blanket around her body. She was a strange pony, as far as she could see she didn't have a head. It could be she didn't see it just because her new friend was so tall. All over her body there were weird lumps. These were something Luna never brought up to the large pony because she was afraid her friend was subconscious of the square-and-triangle abnormalities all over her body. When they first met, she wasn't even sure she was a pony until she noticed her cutie mark: a rectangle with blue in the top left corner, and red and white stripes surrounding the little blue box. There were stars as well— 50 of them, to be exact (the lonely, blue princess counted them so many times that she even lost count of how many times she's counted them). Luna figured her name was the one written on her body, so she called her LM "Orion", or Orion for short.

The other one took a while for Luna to make heads of. He was very flat, and shorter than her. It made her feel nice that she wouldn't be the smallest one of the group. But he was very wide, almost as wide as Orion. He too had a hard, cold, white fur coat. Where his legs should have been, there were instead 4 large wheels, though no kind of wheel Luna ever saw in all of Equestria. They were shiny in the middle, and surrounded by this disgusting-looking black tar that was very hard and yet very bouncy. He had a face. It was very small, about the size of Luna's hoof, surrounded by half of a sphere. The head was on top of a very long neck many times the size of the alicorn. She could see the poor colt's insides. She hoped he wasn't dead because of this assumed injury, but his body didn't fade away since they first met 200 years ago, so she didn't think so. There were lights and little gizmos that didn't seem to belong, and a thin black circle that she assumed was his heart. She was never any good at pony anatomy. She also found a name for her flat friend- LRV, which she pronounced as "Larry".

Luna reasoned that the two were sibling for many reasons; they shared the same cutie mark (they must have also taken pride in their cutie mark because she could see a cloth stuck on a pole in the ground that displayed a picture of their red, white, and blue rectangle), they both came to the moon at the same time, and they both stuck together at all times, never moving from each other's side. In a way, they were an inspiration for the exiled pony; she wished that her and her sister had the same love for each other.

After spending the day (or it could have been many days) with her non-talkative friends, she decided to walk and try to find another crater comfortable enough for her to sleep in. She hadn't taken a step when she heard a noise right behind her. Luna jumped. The moon was always quiet, so this incessantly loud roar was the first real noise she heard in nearly a thousand years. She turned around.

A tornado. On the moon? Luna took a step closer, and found that this "tornado" was actually a rushing wind that was coming from somewhere— a blue oval in the ground. It was as if the moon was a balloon, and someone poked a hole in the balloon and watched the air come fizzing out. But this didn't explain WHERE the air came from; as far as Luna could tell from aimlessly digging into her lunar prison, all that was in the moon was more rocks. Finally, something broke Luna from her contemplative silence. Something big. Something scary. Something coming from the hole! She didn't take time to look at what it was; she turned around and ran back to Orion. She knew her friends would protect her. She hid behind her trusted friend just as she felt blackness creep around the corners of her eyes. She felt herself slipping away. The shock of today was too much, and she was blacking out. As she fell, she could have sworn she heard a voice over the roaring air, which screamed in a metalling, monotone voice "Space? Space? SPACEEEEEE!"


	2. Chapter 2

What about the humans?

When Luna finally came to, the lunar surface was quiet again. The hole in the moon, or whatever it was, was closed and gone. She took this time to look around; pieces of metal were floating about, lying on the ground, making a mess of the area around Orion and Larry. They didn't move or panic during this entire scene, and didn't even flinch. Luna has to commend their bravery to not be phased by such a display. But something was still bothering the young princess… she thought she heard a voice…

No, there were many voices. It started coming back to her, but she could only remember what she heard; anything she saw was lost to her memory. There was the first voice— the metallic, monotone voice that seemed to have a deep love for space, judging by the way he screamed the word. The second voice was one that sounded much like a male pony, but with a slight draw to his vowels, when he said things like "Let go of me! Let go! I can still fix this!"

Then there was the other voice. It didn't sound pony to her; where the first one was metallic with his voice, this one was more… she didn't know. But it wasn't natural. Or nice. The only thing she heard it say was "You are not coming back!" Probably to the second voice, Luna contemplated.

Suddenly, a thought struck the alicorn's mind; where there are voices, there has to be ponies! Unless she was going crazy… she really hoped her first assumption was the correct one. She inspected the area that was the epicenter, as far as she could tell anyway. After walking and looking for at least a few hours, or maybe days, she gave up and began to walk back to her friends when, off in the distance, she heard it.

"Space! I'm in space. Space" It was the first voice, just as monotone as ever. To Luna however, his voice was a chorus of angelic unicorns. She ran towards him more excited than she had boon in nearly a thousand years.

As she ran, she heard the second and more interesting voice. It seemed to be in deep reflection as he talked; "I wish I could take it all back. I just wish I could tell her that… I'm sorry. Yeah. And not just because I'm on this rock now…"

Luna couldn't stand waiting any longer. After such a long and miserable time in solitude on the moon, here were two ponies that seemed to be in the same boat as her! She finally reached the crater the voices were echoing from and screamed in her Canterlot voice, "PONIES YOUR PRINCESS IS—here?"

There weren't any ponies here. Only two more sphere pieces of hard metal lying on the ground. One had a yellow circle that she thought was moving… was it? She was too far away to tell. Her eyes must have been playing tricks on her, she assumed. Just like her ears. There were no ponies here. With her expectations shot down, she left the crater with her head hanging lower than usual. "I guess I'm alone again…"

"Wait; is someone there? HELLO?" Luna looked, but there was still nopony there. "Hello? I'm over here! Can you come over here? I can't move, and—AHH, I'm blind!" Luna took a few steps into the crater. "I'm blind and cold and I can't move… but other than that I think I'm fine. No big bangs or anything. Still, if you are there and that voice I heard wasn't my circuitry frying… umm… I would appreciate some help."

Luna still didn't see where the voice was coming from. She now stood next to the two spheres. "Make your location known. Your princess does not enjoy being played with like this!"

"Space. Princess in space."

Luna looked down at the sphere next to her. Had the voice really just come from that piece of debris? No, that was impossible… but she saw the yellow circle move again until it was pointing right at her.

"Hello Space Princess."

It WAS coming from the orb!

And it was an eye!

She jumped back in terror, and tripped over the second eyes behind her. She fell flat on her back. The other orb thudded a few feet from Luna's face. Unlike its counterpart, this eye had a blue iris. Other than that, they were the same cold metallic metal eye.

"Ahhhhh…oh, I'm not blind. My orbital lens must have been in the ground. Haha, silly me…" the blue eye looked at the blue alicorn. "Oh look, it's a little horsey! Well, your rider must have been the one making all that noise; do you know where he went?" Luna was quiet. "Umm… I don't speak horse… giddy up? Fetch rider?"

Luna had so many emotions going through her mind. The first was fear; this eye was talking to her! It didn't even have a mouth; was this the sign to confirm that she was losing it? Next was relief. Even if she was going crazy, there was now somepony to spend her solitude with. But the emotion that filled her heart the most was anger; this eye dared to talk to her in such a way? Did he not know who he was addressing?

"I do not have a rider, and you would do well to mind your tone with me, commoner!"

"Oh my God, you can talk! A talking pony!" Luna could tell this eyeball was shocked, but she couldn't understand why. He had to have met another pony in his lifetime… right?

"Of course I can talk! I have received many forms of education as the princess!"

"Oh, princess, that explains a lot and OH MY GOD YOU'RE A TALKING PONY!"

"I am an alicorn, not just any pony." Luna was getting fed up with this eyeball's tone with her.

"Oh an alicorn, that's lovely, wha—OH MY GOD YOU'RE A TALKING PONY!"

"Of course! Everypony talks! Now please stop saying that!"

"OH MY… wait, did you just say every_pony?_" The eyeball squinted at Luna looking very suspicious.

"Yes I did. Were you not listening?"

"When you say everypony, does that mean… where you're from, everyone is a pony?"

"Of course. How else could we have come so far as ponykind?"

"Wow… um…okay, let's try something. Where are you from? Are you from that blue orb in the sky?"

"Why yes, of course I'm from the Earth, that's where everypony lives."

"Okay, that's good…not really… and where on earth do you live?"

"I am ruler of Equestria… or at least I used to be…"

"Hmm… Equestria… is that in Asia or China?"

"What is Asia?"

"This is not good. But don't worry Miss Alicorn, no need to panic!"

"I'm not the one panicking, strange eyeball." Luna's emotions were all replaced with confusion. All she heard from this orb was gibberish.

"So, you're trying to tell me that this place—Equestria, and the entire earth— is inhabited by intelligent ponies? No humans?"

"No… what are humans?"

"Oh dear… oh dear oh dear oh dear. This is bad. Very bad!"

"Excuse me; can you explain what the hay is going on?" Luna was not one to use such language, but she was too confused and needed answers.

The eyeball looked back up at her. His breathing was sporadic. Luna could tell that all this new information was deeply affecting. Honestly, Luna didn't like being the one knowing less about a situation. But she kept her composure much better than this eyeball.

"Oh yes, um, hold on." The eyeball closed his eyes. He immediately went quiet. What a strange being, thought Luna. Still, company was company, and she greatly desired company. After a few seconds passed, a different voice came from the eyeball, saying "Computer memory manual reset. Section Earth, subsection Species. File: Dominant Species has been changed from homo sapiens to eqqus caballus." The eyeball opened again. Now his breathing was normal, or rather, normal sounding. The princess still couldn't understand how it was that an eyeball could breathe. "Okay, not that that is taken care of… OH MY GOD YOU ARE A TALKING PONY!"

"I thought you said you were done!" Luna had had just about enough of this nonsense. "If you make one more comment about my being able to talk, I—"

"No, wait! That was the last time, I promise! Now why don't we… just… put this all behind us? I know! We can start from scratch; hello there, my name is Wheatley!"

Luna took a second to decide whether it would be a wise decision to answer. "I am the Princess of the Night, Princess Luna."

The eyeball named Wheatley blinked. "Wow, a real life princess, this is exciting." He looked up at her. It took Luna a while, but her curiosity finally got the best of her.

"And what, Mister Wheatley, are you supposed to be?'

"Oh, I'm glad you asked! I am Wheatley, AI core of Aperture Science Laboratories! I am head of the Human Stasis Observation crew… or rather I used to be… and I was the only one on the Observation crew… but that means that I'm in charge, right?"

Luna couldn't keep up with what this eyeball was saying, and it had nothing to do with the speed he spoke. AI core? Aperture Science? And he brought up these humans again, what were they?

She tried to process this new information slowly; "What is an AI core?"

Wheatley chuckled. "Oh yes, you're a pony. I should have known better. But essentially, I'm a super capacity computer with a conscience. Is that better?"

Luna was still silent.

"Wow, tough crowd… how about this—I'm a really really smart pony trapped in an orb."

Luna was beginning to get the idea, but it was still too much to take in all at once. "So, you have lived your life in an orb. Does it not bother you that you cannot leave your little prison?"

"Yeeeaaaa… no, not really. There isn't really a lot to see though. On my tracks, all I can see are the smelly humans in their deep sleep."

"And what are these humans that you continue to drone on about?"

"You really don't know what a human is? They are the creatures that ride you!"

Luna was so offended that she got up and walked away without saying another word.

"Wait! Come back! Princess Luna! Did I say something wrong?"

The alicorn was filled with fury as she turned around. She screamed out at Wheatley "You've insulted me more times than I have ever been offended in my life, tell me why I should stay here!"

"Well… because… I'm… alone here. I don't like it. Not having anyone to keep you company. I had someone back on earth, but she sent me here, all because I made a mistake. I thought I was doing the right thing… I mean…"

Luna didn't hear Wheatley continuing his contemplation. All she knew was here was somepony—the only other being—to have been banished to the moon. And by someone they cared about! Maybe this eyeball, or AI core as he referred to himself, was just the friend she had been longing for, who knows her pain, and has seen the world through her eyes, as it were.

"… or maybe it was me calling her fat… or an orphan… but she knew I was only kidding, right? I mean, _maybe _I could have told her—"

"Excuse me, but why were you sent here, Wheatley?"

"Oh, don't get me started on that again Lun—I mean, your highness." Luna's glare seemed to have struck fear into Wheatley. Luna took note of this just in case.

"Well, we have a lot of time. Why don't you tell me your story…friend?"

"Friend? Wow, okay… well, I started my life as an accountant's computer processor…"

…

Princess Celestia took a step out onto her balcony. She looked up at the full moon in the sky and thought about her sister. She thought about her every night, and wondered what she was doing up there on the moon.

"Maybe I should go visit her this weekend… before the summer sun celebration. Maybe if she's ready to come back, we can have a huge celebration, and on the 1000th year!" Celestia hoped that her sister was ready, just like every other time she visited her. It hurt her to see her sister was in so much pain up there, but her duties had to come first, even before family. The white alicorn sighed.

Suddenly, a purple unicorn came rushing to her side. Usually, Princess Celestia would not like to be disturbed while she was gazing at her sister's prison, but she would make an exception for her prized pupil of magic.

"I have come to report my findings on magic as you requested, princess!"

"You have? Proceed"

"Well, I have found a spell that will allow me to teleport short distances. It will take me a while to harness its ability, and a lot of practice to execute properly, but with another day of studying, I should—"

"Twilight Sparkle, have you ever heard the story of the Mare on the Moon?"

"Why yes, but I do not have time for little fairy tales for fillies… unless there's some magical lesson I need to study?"

"Well, if you want magic, there's the Elements of Harmony, but that's not—"

"Elements of Harmony. Got it! I will begin studying right away!" With that, Twilight Sparkle turned and ran off, ready to complete her next assignment.

Celestia chuckled. "That's my prized student, always with her head in her books." With that, she looked back at her sister. "I love you, Luna. I really hope you are ready this time." Celestia turned and went back inside.

The End (Until chapter 3!)

Okay folks, now that I got your attention, (and this is matrixjorel, by the way, how are you audience?) two things; though this is the more interesting of my two stories, anyone reading this one should also follow my first story, A Sense of Belonging. It's a lot more meaningful and personal to me, and I'd love to see it successful! Second, a shout out to my homie brony BHoang56, who is now my editor/proofreader! Check him out, he's awesome, and… yeah. Peace!


	3. Chapter 3

D'aww, like father like son!

The two unlikely companions were still sitting in the same crater they found each other in. To Luna, it seemed like they had been there for hours—days even—and it was the best time of her entire lunar exiling. Finally, a voice that talked back to her! Another pony, even if he was very different from anypony she ever met before. She now learned what her sister meant by the power of friendship, because right now, with only one friend in the entire universe, she felt hope and happiness once more.

'Wheatley is quite the talker,' Luna thought to herself. Nearly this whole time they spent sitting together, Wheatley had been recounting his life story. She understood that he lived for a long time, but she did not understand how the AI core could speak in what seemed to be one day-long sentence. His words reflected his thought patterns, and his words were full of deviation, tangents, and inner monologues said aloud. Still, hearing a voice other than her own was soothing at least, so she listened with her eyes closed slightly in contemplation.

It sounded to Luna like her friend's story was drawing to a close; "…and that's when Chell, my one and only friend, who I've helped through thick and thin, teamed up with our enemy, GLaDOS, and sent me here… I mean, maybe it was kind of… completely…my fault, but I could have changed! All I wanted was to show people that I wasn't an idiot, that I am smart, so once I had that body and control, I wanted people to see what I could do! That's all! I mean, you believe me, right Luna? Luna? Did you fall asleep, Luna?"

Luna's eyes bolted open. Maybe his voice was a little too soothing. "No, and I completely agree… I think."

"THANK you! I mean, what would you do if you had a chance to get appreciation for all the hard work you have done?"

"Well," Luna answered, "that's part of the reason why I was sent here. You see, as Princess of the Night, my job is to raise the moon every night—"

Oh, so that's how it happens… always wondered why the moon and sun moved in the sky… oh, sorry…" Wheatley added, seeing that Luna was very upset that he interrupted her mid-sentence.

"Anyway, I raise the moon every night. I put a lot of work into it giving all my little ponies a beautiful night every night, but they never appreciated my work… they sleep during the night—"

"Yeah, I know that a lot of species tend to sleep at night, biological creatures have such a burden of having to sleep… sorry again! Continue…"

Luna took a deep breath. "And all of the ponies slee—"

"Of course, there are those nocturnal animals that would stay awake through the night, so it's not like you have no audience…" Luna gave the AI core a look so hard, he was quiet for a few seconds; the longest silence since the two met. "You know, I'll just turn off my speakers now… continue!"

"As I was saying—" Luna stopped to see if Wheatley would stay true to his promise, and even though his eyeball was spinning wildly, he remained silent. "So, as I was saying, no one ever seemed to appreciate my wonderful nights. I guess I just became really mad at them, and I didn't control my emotions. I underwent a transformation, I became Nightmare Moon, and I tried to stop the sun. That's when my sister, Princess Celestia, stopped me and banished me here. I've been here for 1000 years, and I just want to go back, but I don't think my sister loves me anymore!" Luna felt a tear come to her eyes, and it was quiet as she wept…too quiet. She looked down at her friend, whose eye was spinning as if he were seizing. "Wheatley, are you okay?"

"Oh my GOSH, I never realized how hard it was to go without talking, that was strangely painful!" Wheatley took a deep breath (where was his mouth? Luna was still stumped), and proceeded to respond to Luna's story:

"Well, it sounds like you have had quite a falling out with your sister."

"We did, and I know that I was wrong, but I just didn't know it then."

"Was it really that serious? For her to forget the bond between you two and banish you here?"

"Yes… and even when she visits me, I feel like she hasn't forgotten what I did…"

"Then I don't think she has." Wheatley now spoke a little more thoughtfully than before. "If it's anything like with me and Chell, she doesn't want to forgive you. She can't. You've disappointed her too much, and she won't love you anymore."

Luna lost control of her emotions with Wheatley's last statement. She had hoped for 1000 years that deep down, her sister still loved her, that she could have forgiveness, and come back; but she couldn't now. Her greatest fear had been confirmed for her. Now all she could do was weep on the lunar surface she would be trapped on forever.

"I'm sorry if I said anything to upset you, I'm just trying to help, a little bit."

"No, you've only told me the truth. You are my only friend now, Wheatley."

"Oh, now there, there, we will always have each other."

"!" And with one word, the third wheel of the group disrupted the mood that Luna was wallowing in. He spun around, floated into the middle of the other two, and proceeded to talk; "What's your favorite thing about space? Mine is space!"

Luna couldn't help but fight back a smile; "That's lovely, Mr. Space." She honestly didn't know what else to call him, he never answered her coherently, and he had a deep love for space, so she thought it seemed fitting to name him after space.

"I love space. I own space. Space space. I buy space in space. Right there. And Princess in Space. I know Princess Space! SPACE!"

"Thank you, now will you please leave us alone? Go float over there, please!" Wheatley seemed bothered by the other core, or so it appeared to Luna. Was it an argument they had from before she met them? Or was it jealousy? She couldn't tell, but she liked his happy-go-lucky attitude, she found it contagious. Now she was laughing along with Mr. Space.

"Aww, I don't know where we would be without your happy demeanor, Mr. Space!"

"You'd be in space! I go play space with my dad, ready?"

His voice dropped as he responded to his own question. "I'm ready, my space son!" And with that, he floated away.

….

Wheatley could see that Luna loved the Space Core more than him. He could just see now that she would leave him, and they would spend their miserable lives laughing and having fun calling him a moron—no! Not again! Chell already betrayed him, and he would make sure it never happened to him again.

…..

Princess Celestia sat in her study. Even though she had been ruling Equestria solo for 1000 years, she still could not handle the stress of it all, and from time to time, needed to take a day off to have just for herself and her books. She became a huge fan of a book series Daring Do, which her student Twilight Sparkle had brought to her attention nearly 5 years ago. She found it amazing how far ponies had come in their imagination and creativity to be able to create suck a long-running and intriguing series, but the reason why the alicorn couldn't help but read the stories was, even though the author of the book swore it was a fictional story, Celestia knew the real Daring Do, who was much like the one in this book. She lived nearly 200 years ago, though, so she understood why no one has heard of her.

Sitting in her private study with her copy of Daring Do and the Obsidian Sword (also a real thing, though nopony has ever heard of it. Besides, who would believe there is a sword that could raise ponies from the dead?), Celestia felt calm and well rested. Then a puff of smoke broke the peace, startling the princess and causing her to drop her book. She looked up to find a letter. 'Now who would need to send me a letter this early?' she thought. She has only raised the sun half an hour ago.

My Dearest Teacher;

My continuing studies of pony magic have led me to discover that we are on the precip thrash br something really bad is about to happen. For you see, the mythical Mare in the Moon is in fact Nightmare Moon and she is about to return to Equestria and bring with her eternal night! Something must be done to make sure this prophecy does NOT come true!

I await your quick response.

Your Faithful student,

Twilight Sparkle

P.S. It is imper important that we take action right away!

Celestia was surprised how much studying her most faithful student has done on the subject, only last night did she bring up the Elements of Harmony, and now she knew about Nightmare Moon and the prophesy concerning her. She knew that it would take more power than a single pony could ever accumulate to teleport someone to the moon, so she knew it was unlikely for Luna to escape so easily. Even for her, she needed to be in the presence of the Elements to just barely make the trip, and she had to be quick to come back before the power dissipated.  
>But even if Nightmare Moon was not a threat, she knew that Twilight had to realize her destiny to become the wielder of the Elements. She knew too much about them for her to go without, and Celestia knew for a while that the figurative torch had to be passed down. So she proceeded with her plan to prepare Twilight for receiving the Elements;<p>

My Dearest, most Faithful Student Twilight;

You know that I value your diligence and trust I you completely, but you simply must stop reading those dusty old books. My dear Twilight, there is more to a young pony's life than studying. So, I'm sending you to supervise the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration in this year's location—Ponyville.

And, I have an even more essential task for you to complete: MAKE SOME FRIENDS! It is more important than you would think, and will bring you much happiness.

Your Princess and teacher,

Celestia

The Princess tried to put as much emphasis on her student making friends as she could. It was, as Spike seemed to have trouble spelling, imperative that she learned the magic of true friendship; even if Twilight was the most magically gifted pony she met, she could never wield the Elements in her ignorance.

She was grateful that Twilight had written her, though. In all the stress preparing for the Summer Sun Celebration, she almost forgot that this one was special. In two days, Luna would have been gone for one entire millennium. 'I really hope my sister is ready to come home, I can't spend another year without her,' Celestia thought. She missed her sister, and not a day went by where she wasn't in her thoughts.

"I know, I shall visit her once again tomorrow." She thought out loud. "If my little Luna is ready, this will be the best Summer Sun Celebration in Equestrian history!" Celestia smiled at the hope of what tomorrow would bring for her and her sister. After reflecting on her happy thoughts, she returned to her book. Daring was almost about to confront her nemesis: Kingpin Escobar!

…..

Luna found now that she had company, sleep came easier. That was the first good nap she had in at least 700 years. Wheatley was still next to her, but only because he could not move very well on his own, and needed Luna's help to move around. But he liked to stay on the ground and not move around like his friend Mr. Space, who had discovered that blinking when on the ground would push him up a small bit, so his movement consisted of short hops along the ground. She wondered if Orion and Larry had ever discovered a way to move…

"Orion and Larry!" screamed Luna with a start. She grabbed Wheatley with her teeth and started running for her two other friends.

Wheatley was obviously startled by Luna's outburst and being picked up that he started screaming, "Hey! Woah! What's going on? Is it an earthquake? But we're on the moon… Oh my gosh, it's a moonquake! Moonquake! MMOOOONNQQUU—Wait, what are you doing, Luna?"

"I ralmost forrot aboud my udder frienz! I'll intradush you!" Luna tries to say with her mouth gripping Wheatley.

"What's this? Other friends? I thought you said you were alone, now you have OTHER FRIENDS?"

Luna's breath was quickening since she had not done any sort of cardio in a long time. "Well, they aren't really the most social, but they are there and have kept me company."

Luna reached the two standing there in their usual spot. She set Wheatley down. "Here they are!"

"Here who are?"

"Orion and Larry!"

"Are they behind that thing?"

"What thing?"

"The Apollo landing capsule…"

"No, that's them right there! Orion and Larry!"

Wheatley was quiet for a while. The first word he said a few seconds later was "Oooohhhh…I see…I think. So, who is Orion?"

"Here, I'll introduce you to them!" Luna picked him up again, and set him next to Orion's leg.

"This is Orion. She's the tough one. And that's her brother Larry over there. He's really small, and really shy."

"Wait, that's not a person."

"Well, yeah. They're ponies."

"No, they're not that either. That one is the Lunar Roving Vehicle, and this one is the Apollo space shuttle. I remember seeing pictures of this space mission when I was in GLaDOS's mainframe…"

"No, they are ponies!"

"No, they're machines. Vehicles, to be exact."

Luna was breathing hard. She had a hunch that they weren't ponies, but she hoped that they were, and they were what kept her going for so long. Now, Wheatley was telling her they weren't even alive.

"My friends… I thought that they were alive."

"Now it's okay… it often happens that people in solitude personify inanimate objects. It's natural!"

"Really?"

"Of course, only about 80%of them go insane!"

"80%?" Luna screamed. Was she insane? Was even Wheatley a hallucination?

Wheatley started panicking as Luna started to cry once more. "Oh, but you're not going crazy…I think…I mean, I—I KNOW! You are absolutely… probably normal, I hope… But insane? No! No, no, no…probably…not…I assume."

"Thank you… I think?" Luna whimpered with hesitation.

"And besides you aren't alone, I'm your friend!"

"And Mr. Space!"

"Yes, even that nitwit," Wheatley said spitefully.

"Thank you, Wheatley!" Luna gave her AI-core-friend a hug, and picked him up once again. "I guess these two… um, vehicles… were what gave me hope when my sister sent me up here."

"Yes, funny you should mention your sister…"

"Why is that?" Luna asked.

"I've been thinking about what you said about her… do you really think she's going to come save you one of these days?"

"Well… I hope so. Why else would she check on me from time to time?"

"Why indeed? Maybe she was just secretly laughing at you behind your back."

"No, she would never; I can't believe you would even say that!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry…" Wheatley continued, "But she sent you here, alone, and it's apparent that she has not forgiven you, so why else would she come back?"

"I…I don't know…Please stop it!"

"She must love to see you suffer. After all you've done for her, she seemed so willing to just throw it all away…"

"I said SHUT UP!" Luna exploded. She didn't want to admit it, but what Wheatley was saying almost made sense.

"Like you said, you have no other friends. I'm your friend, though. I've been by your side this entire time, helped you, listened to you, even that Mr. Space doesn't like being around you. Even he leaves."

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP!"

"I'm just being a friend. I don't want to see you get hurt."

Something was building up inside of the poor alicorn. Something she had not felt in a thousand years: hate. She hated how she no longer had her friends. She hated what Wheatley was telling her, even though she felt like it was true deep down. But mostly hate for her sister, the only pony she ever loved unconditionally, the one that sent her up here, the one who never forgave her.

She could see it now. Every time she came to "check" on her, every look of disappointment she received… she didn't love her anymore. All the other ponies probably mocked her in Canterlot—no, all of Equestria—laughing at the pain of their ex-princess… she hated them all…

…..

Wheatley seemed to be getting to her; if there was two things he downloaded while in GLaDOS' mainframe, they were advanced mechanical engineering to fix the 'minor' problems in the facility, and GLaDOS' ability to manipulate others. Now that Luna felt completely alone, he would be her only friend. No longer would he be alone, mocked as a moron, or made fun of. He had another who would never abandon him, like Chell did.

The alicorn suddenly turned white, to Wheatley's surprise. "Umm… are you okay?" Luna didn't respond, but she did begin to float up. Wheatley wished he had legs, he was honestly a little scared of what was happening. The whiteness enveloping Luna abruptly gave way to darkness, which swirled like a tornado, until…

Luna burst from the tornado and landed on the ground. Only it wasn't Luna. This new pony was much taller, and her coat and mane were much darker. She seemed to have made armor from nothing, since she was lightly covered in metallic plates. Wheatley was at a loss for words.

"L-L-Luna?"

"Luna is no more. I am Nightmare Moon."

"Oh, that's interesting…"

"You! Wheatley! You have shown me the truth. I see now that you are the only other I can trust!"

"Yay!" exclaimed the AI core. "So, what do you want to do now, FRIEND?"

"I will go back to Equestria and make them all pay!"

Wheatley laughed maniacally. "Ooohhh… perfect!"


	4. Chapter 4

"So, what devious scheme are you concocting now, friend?" asked the evil, if not slightly unintelligent, AI core.

"We need to find a way off of this rock and back to earth," answered the tall, slender, black mare with a cold voice.

The two had been sitting and plotting what they would do once they got to

Equestria and what would happen. Most of this had been Nightmare moon talking and Wheatley sitting there—not really listening, just happy to be with a friend. But this was the first time that Nightmare Moon put thought into HOW to get to Equestria.

"Well, you can just teleport us there, right? Use your magic!"

"I don't have enough magic for that, Wheatley… if I did, I would have done it already!" yelled Nightmare Moon.

"Sheesh, no need to be testy."

Nightmare Moon almost said something else, but she restrained herself. Even if this AI core was an idiot most of the time, he did have that spark in his…eye… that spark of evil. If she turned him away now, she could risk having to fight two battles once she returned to Equestria; one against the Princess of the Sun, and one against her ex-friend. For now, it seemed beneficial to remain "friends"; at least until she found a way to neutralize the threat he posed.

"I'm sorry…_buddy…_"she said, adding emphasis on the last word.

"Now it's okay, I forgive you old buddy, old pal! I mean, we're in this together, right?"

"Of course we—"

"SPACE! It never gets old!" The Space core was still rolling around the moon. He must have gone around twice in their time here, and he just kept on going. "Wait…I'm bored." He plopped next to the others.

"Hold on… hold on a second… I GOT IT!" Wheatley jumped up in excitement.

"And what is it that you have, Wheatley?"

"We build a bridge!"

"Come again?"

"A bridge! We can dig up rocks here on the moon and make a bridge to earth, then cross it! It's so simple! All we need is concrete… do you know how to make concrete?"

"Concrete? I can't say that I do."

"Hmm… what about a lot of chewing gum, do you know how to make chewing gum?"

"Wheatley, as…_good_… as that plan is, I don't think it will work at all." Nightmare Moon was nearly crying from the force it took to hold back saying anything that would turn Wheatley against her. But there was so much to be said to this idiot.

"Oh well, worth a shot."

"Take a shot into space. Snapshot! Click."

"Will you please shut up! Where did you even come from? Nightmare Moon, you don't want this thing here, do you?"

"But he's so funny, and a great friend!" replied Luna.

"WHAT?" Wheatley's scream startled the mare, who was silent for a second before responding; "I mean, no, I am already dealing with enough distractions as it is trying to devise a way back to Equestria. Leave us, Space core!"

"Space core…space… did you know we are in space? SPACE? I'm in space! I'll never get tired of space!" screamed the obsessed sphere as he started to bounce around the moon again.

Wheatley kept his eye on Nightmare Moon. For a second, she didn't quite sound like herself, almost like…

"Luna?"

"Excuse me?" replied Nightmare Moon with a testy tone in her voice.

"I thought I just heard Luna for a second…"

"You heard nothing you id—I mean, Wheatley." Try as she might to hide the truth, even someone as clueless as Wheatley had to have noticed that Luna did come out for a second. When Luna gave into the hatred she fought for millennia, Nightmare Moon was able to take over Luna and her body. But in that same way, the presence of powerful friendship weakened the evil mare's hold, and allowed Luna to come out. The Space core was the source of this innocent, pure friendship that empowered the young, naïve alicorn named Luna. Before anything happened, he needed to be taken care of. The Space core had to go.

…

Celestia was surprised at how few letters she received from her most prized pupil while she was gone at Ponyville. She knew that it would benefit the unicorn in many ways to develop friendships with other ponies, but for one who had never put work into socializing, Celestia knew Twilight was having difficulties. She could imagine it now; the entire town celebrating the Summer Sun Celebration, while Twilight was up in her room, reading her books and trying to drown out the sound with her hoofs covering her ears.

And speaking of Summer Sun Celebration, Celestia still had a lot of things to prepare for tomorrow! She had to prepare her chariot, gather up the few guards who weren't already gone partying for the holidays…see Luna…

She knew that the prophesy predicted that Nightmare Moon would come back today. But prophecies have been wrong before. And this time, Celestia just knew it would be different. Luna must be ready to come back. After 1000 years, it had been long enough.

Celestia had her royal helper Pompous Powderwig gather up her guards and ready the chariot, and she flew out into the Everfree Forest, where the powers of the Elements of Harmony still resided.

Upon arriving at the Old Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters, she started to get chills up her spine. After so long, her sister might finally be ready to come back home. A thousand years… there was just so much to catch up on! Maybe Luna could be a guest of Celestia's in the festival, and there be reintroduced as the second princess. Thoughts of her sister finally ruling by her side once again distracted Celestia until she found herself in the old throne room.

"Wow, this place has really fallen apart."

She was right, of course. Holes in the ceiling, windows gone, vines growing all over the walls; this was what was left of the once exquisite castle that Celestia and Luna's parents ruled from. But time for reminiscing would be later. The alicorn had to go to the moon and bring back Luna before she had to come to Ponyville to raise the sun.

Calling upon the powers of the Elements, she summoned enough energy, pictured the spot on the moon she always teleported to, and vanished in a spark of light.

When she opened her eyes, the Princess found herself on the dead, white rock in the sky. No matter how many times she came here to check on Luna's progress, she could never get used to the cold, or the silence. 'It's about time Luna gets out of here!' thought Celestia with a smile on her face. She took one step forward—WHAM! The majestic princess of the sun fell to the ground.

"What the buck was that?" Celestia wasn't usually one to stoop to such language, but whatever it was that hit her really hurt, not to mentioned scared her worse than she had been scared in a few centuries. She turned to looked at whatever hit her.

"Space. Pony."

Celestia screamed.

…

Hmm. Bounce around moon. See stars. That one is Betelgeuse. That's the Orion galaxy. So shiny. I'm in space, Dad!

'Glad to hear, son! You achieved your-space-dream. What do you want to do now?'

Bounce around in space. I go to space pony princess. She's fun. Space. She's a pony, and she's in space. She's my friend.

Bounce. Star. Bounce. Star. WHAM. Wham?

What hit me? Not Space. Space can't hit, space is emptiness. Pony. Not space princess. This one white. Like supernova. Supernova: a star that suddenly increases greatly in brightness because of a catastrophic explosion that ejects most of its mass.

"Space. Pony."

Scream.

…

"Pardon my outburst, I just was not expecting to see… well, anyone on the moon."

"Pony on moon. Another. Small space, huh? SPACE!"

Celestia couldn't help but smile at this amusing, if not eccentric and slightly perplexing eyeball. No, it wasn't an eyeball… but what was it?

"Excuse me, but what exactly are you?" asked Celestia.

The orb's voice changed into one a little deeper and more pony-sounding than before, "I am S-151, Space AI Core of Apert—SHOOTING STAR!" The voice changed back as the 'AI core' started jumping up and down again at the sight of a shooting star. Celestia looked up at the sky and smiled. This AI core was so innocent, why was he here? How long had he been on the moon? Maybe he knew where Luna was!

"Excuse me, Mr. Space Core? Have you perhaps seen my sister? She looks like me, but is dark blue, and—"

"You mean space princess pony space? She's in space. COME! To space!"

The AI core hopped off again, and Celestia had the feeling like he was leading her somewhere. She followed, eager to see her sister once again.

…

Wheatley and Nightmare Moon were sitting in the crater they had been in since… how long had it been? 'If only I had a watch,' thought the AI core as he sat next to his friend.

"So, any brilliant ideas, best friend of mine?"

Nightmare sighed. "No, nothing yet. Please don't interrupt me while I'm thinking!"

"Oh, sorry about that! I'll just go for a walk, and I'll be back in 5 minutes. Maybe by then we'll make a smashing idea together, and go back to Equestria, and do all sorts of havoc!"

"Yes, yes, just go ahead already!"

"Okay… I'll be back in a while. I'll miss you!"

"GO!"

Wheatley hopped off a little sad. "Oh no, I'm losing her again. After all this work I've done. All I've done so far was being nice. I've came up with ideas, even if they had some tiny… catastrophic problems, but it's the thought that counts, right? Then again, that's what I thought with Chell…"

Wheatley stopped when he mentioned her name. The way that human so nonchalantly abandoned him, after all the things he did for her. She was the first, and only, human he ever opened up to, and she sends him here to rot away without a second thought? That's what he got for trying to be the nice friend.

Maybe that's why he was losing Nightmare. Maybe she too was getting tired of him because all he did was try to be nice. Niceness did not make friends. He had to do something for her, something so big, she would be eternally in his debt, and he would then have her on a friendship leash, to be his friend forever, no matter what.

Wheatley started looking around for something he could do to make Nightmare Moon his friend slave—or rather, his friend that would be forever in debt of him.

Fate seemed to smile on the horribly confused AI core, as he saw the stupid Space core bouncing towards them with… another pony?

Wheatley bounced back to the crater with Nightmare Moon. "Nightmare? Nightmare?"

"What is it, Wheatley?" Asked Nightmare Moon, not even trying to hide her annoyance.

"There's another pony here…"

Nightmare looked up to see the white alicorn in the distance. A smile came to her muzzle. "Perfect."

…

Celestia couldn't hold back her excitement anymore. Any second, she would see Luna come out from one of the craters, come running up to her, and give her a big hug. She couldn't wait any longer. "How much farther are we?"

"Space. Almost at the space spot."

"Great!"

"The stars…"

The voice he spoke in was very solemn suddenly; it was so different from the usual voice the royal alicorn heard, she became confused. "Sorry, what was that?"

"The stars… will aid in her escape."

"Where did you hear that from?" Celestia was a little perturbed at what the AI core was saying. He continued.

"On the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars… will aid in her escape… and she will bring about endless night."

Celestia was now freaking out. This thing just recited the ancient prophecy word for word. What was he? The eyeball of the Space core looked at Celestia and said, "Supernova pony, you are a star. You raise sun. Sun is star. Space. You must go."

Whatever possessed the otherwise innocent AI core to say these things was persuasive enough to convince Celestia. She would come back tomorrow to check on her sister, this was too eerie. WHAM. Celestia fell down, and the first thing she thought was, "Not another one!"

Before Celestia blacked out, she heard two new voices speaking; "Did you see that Nightmare? Did you see how I took her out? Aren't you in debt to me now?" came a voice that sounded slightly metallic like the Space core.

"So… sister… did you miss me?" came the second voice, a voice Celestia never wanted to hear again.


	5. Chapter 5

"Luna…"

Twilight looked at the clock as she poked her head out from under her pillow. 4 o'clock. They had been partying in the downstairs study of the library all night, and she was getting tired of it really quick. She let out a sigh as her head retreated once again into the small sanctuary her pillow delivered to her ears. Suddenly, she heard the door open as a small purple dragon walked in. "Hey Twilight! Pinkie Pie's starting Pin the Tail on the Pony! Wanna play?"

"No! All the ponies in this town are ca-RAZY! Do you know what time it is?"

"It's the eve of the summer sun celebration! Everypony has to stay up or they'll miss the princess raising the sun." Spike shifted the lamp shade he was wearing as a hat back on his head. "You really should lighten up Twilight; it's a party!"

When Spike walked out, Twilight mocked his lecture, and threw herself back on her bed. "Here I thought I had time to study more about the Elements of Harmony… but—silly me!—all this 'friendship making' has kept me from it!" She grabbed her book on ancient pony folktales and lore and walked over to the window. There was a full moon out, and she could have sworn that she saw some stars flying around that white orb in the sky.

"Legend has it that on the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars will aid in her escape, and she will bring about everlasting night." Twilight had read that one passage over and over. Though Princess Celestia had told her that the story was nothing more than an old pony tale, she couldn't help but shake the feeling that it was more than that. She had written Celestia many more notes about her worries today, and now the Princess was just ignoring them. "I hope the Princess was right. I hope it is just an old pony tale…"

The door opened up again, and once again by Spike, who was still adorning the lamp-cover-hat, along with a few streamers caught in his scales. "C'mon Twilight! It's time to watch the sun rise!"

The purple unicorn took one last look at the moon. She hoped that she really would see the sun this morning…

…..

When Celestia finally came to, she realized that there was something binding her front hoofs and hind hoofs together; she was also lying on the ground. She saw that there wasn't any ropes around her legs, and yet she couldn't move her legs no matter how hard she struggled against the invisible bindings. Suddenly, a voice said, "Oh, sweet sister… you're awake…"

Suddenly Celestia became aware of her surroundings. She was still on the moon. Surrounding her was Nightmare Moon and another orb that looked just like the Space core; she assumed they were related. Also, she noticed that they 'invisible ropes' around her legs was actually strands of magical wisps that the evil mare cast to keep Celestia in place. "Nightmare Moon, tell me what you are doing!"

"So cute, you think you're still in control. Well you aren't. I think the universe knows that it's time for a passing of the crown. I mean, why else would you come here?" Nightmare moon continued to circle the hogtied alicorn on the ground.

"Oh, and I helped too princess! Don't forget that! Your best friend in the entire world was there with a one-two to make sure that—"

"QUIET!" She couldn't wait until she didn't need this Wheatley anymore. Soon enough, she would regain her former power, and then she could rule all of Equestria uncontested. After that, she would be done with this "friendship" crap that her sister lectured her on for hundreds of years. She didn't need friends. Never. This was also why the Space core had to go.

Though she would never admit it to a living soul, the Space core scared her. She could literally feel Luna's presence fighting to regain control of her body whenever the orb came close. As long as it was anywhere near Nightmare Moon, she was in danger. "Wheatley, bring out our other prisoner."

"Yes, mam, best friend mam!" Wheatley replied as he hopped off into a nearby crater.

Nightmare moon bent down into Celestia's face. "You think your friendship is so powerful, but look where compassion has gotten you! Look what happens to those that care! Once the Space core is gone for good, my power will be limitless!"

"No, you can never match the powers of the Elements of—"

"Shut up! Your precious Elements can't save you now. And if you still think they can, you are horribly mistaken."

"No, YOU are horribly mistaken! Luna," Celestia called out as tears formed in her eyes, "I know you're in there, horribly lost and confused. But this isn't you! You aren't this monster! You are the same little pony that I love!"

"Luna is no more. You made sure of that by sending me here."

"I know that that isn't true! I also know that this isolation must have been excruciating for you Luna, but don't think that this was an easy thing for me either. Not a single day went by where I didn't think about you, miss you, contemplate coming to visit you and bring you back home… but my duty…"

"Your DUTY? If you are such a strong alicorn princess, why do you still feel obligated to obey such rules? You made them, and you can change them whenever you want. Unless you've grown weak in the thousand years I've been gone?"

"Please, Luna, come back… I miss you so, and I love you…"

The evil blue mare took pause at this. She needed to just to keep Luna suppressed. She had been in full control this entire conversation, but Celestia's last comment seemed to awaken Luna from her mental limbo state. But Nightmare Moon was gaining power with every passing second, and Luna's consciousness was quickly fading. "Nice try, sister. Now you just sit and wait. Soon I will return to Equestria and take back what is rightfully mine! Everypony will fear me and embrace the darkness of the night!"

"And what about your friend Wheatley?"

"Haha, FRIEND? Don't make me laugh! He is an incompetent fool that I will destroy once his use to me is no more."

"And are you planning on using the Space core too?"

Nightmare Moon smiled as she gazed down at the sun princess lying on the ground. "You'll just have to wait and see."

…

Twilight and Spike cantered in the night toward the town center. Everypony was making their way there from some party they had been at previously. Twilight was just glad that her job here was nearly done, and now she could go back to Canterlot and continue with her studies and get away from these crazy ponies.

She walked into the huge building decorated for this special occasion. Suddenly, she felt Spike stand up on her back and start looking at the crowd. "What is it now, Spike?" Twilight asked a little annoyed.

"I'm looking for HER!" Little hearts flew around her assistant and she knew exactly who he was referring to.

"Well, I'm sorry Spike, but this is a big city, and the odds of us…"

"Why, hello again darlings!" Rarity came running out from behind them. "Have you found a spot yet? We're all sitting over there, if you care to join us!" She pointed her hoof over to the group of crazy ponies that seemed to love driving Twilight out of her mind; Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie.

"Why did you have to jinx it, Twilight?" the unicorn muttered to herself as she slowly walked over to the group and found a seat.

…

Wheatley bounced up to the Space core, who was no longer being his jubilant self. Where before he could not stop talking about space, now he said nothing. The last thing Wheatley remembered hearing him say was… something about stars aiding some escape, and night. Honestly, he could care less about what he said; it was all kind of boring anyway. "Okay now, old chap! Nightmare Moon wants to see you."

Silence.

"Come along, them!" Wheatley linked hooks with the Space core and dragged him back to the Princesses on the other side of the lunar valley.

Wheatley didn't like the uncomfortable silence the Space core now gave him, so Wheatley began to think out loud; "Wow, I sure am happy to be BEST friends with Nightmare Moon! She's going to bring me with her to Equestria, and we're going to do so many fun things together! Let's see… we can visit the park, play board games, I remember hearing how humans practiced a ritual called a 'slumber party', that sounds like fun… she'll rule the kingdom, of ourse, so I can be her Royal Advisor, and we'll be beaties forever! Yeah, you sure did miss out, buddy!"

Silence.

"Hmm, what's wrong? Cat got your auxiliary cables?"

Silence.

"You know, you aren't the best person to have around as company. I think you should know that!"

On the other side of the crater, the two alicorns waited in silence. Celestia felt like hope of trying to talk Luna back was quickly vanishing, and she didn't want to amuse Nightmare Moon by continuing her previous attempts; they just weren't working. Maybe Nightmare Moon was right. What if by sending luna away to the moon for a thousand years destroyed her younger sister's hope, and sent the wrong message? What if Luna felt that Celestia didn't love her again? 'No, don't think like that!' thought Celestia, but it was the only thing that made sense at this point. Celestia continued to cry for the loss of her only sibling.

Nightmare Moon was also busy in thought as she waited for her incompetent helper to bring back the Space core. 'Just one hit,' she kept thinking. 'Just one hit and he'll be gone.'

"Nightmare Moon! I've done it!"

Never did that annoying accent sound as appealing to the mare as right then; she turned to see Wheatley drag her prisoner towards her. He was unusually out of character, he had remained silent since the captured him. He had not said a word about space, or ponies, or any of the gibberish nonsense that usually came from his brain. But his eye was still spinning around, and it was this eye, this yellow spinning circle, that was causing her problems. She had to act quick.

"So Princess, what do you have in mind for our little friend here? I have an idea! We can bury him! Do you have any shovels? No? Okay then… what if we throw him out into space? Yeah, that would work, I know it would drive me insane…but he might like flying through space, so that isn't bad enough… what if we—what are you doing?"

As Wheatley continued his ramblings, Nightmare Moon raised her hoof silently over the Space core. She stared at it with an expressionless face.

Celestia saw what the dark alicorn was about to do; it was a horrible thing, even if it wasn't a pony. "Luna, please… don't do this. This isn't you. You would never kill. Luna, just stop, I beg of you."

Nightmare Moon readied her hoof.

"Space pony?" The yellow eye focused in on her. Nightmare Moon stopped. She heard a voice.

"Stop it, I won't allow you to do this to my friend!" It was Luna. The presence of the Space core had once again awakened in her mind and was now fighting Nightmare Moon for control.

"No, you know nothing you simple little pony. It's my turn now. And I will make them all pay!"

"But he is my friend. My sister taught me to love my friends, and I cannot allow you to hurt my friends!"

"Your sister is wrong. Friendship means nothing."

"No. You are lying! I won't let you hurt dear Space core!"

The hoof slowly retracted.

"No! I am supposed to have control!"

"Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but it looks like the power of friendship is still more powerful than you!"

"YOU ARE WRONG!"

"I am not wrong Nightmare Moon, you are just horribly mistaken!"

Suddenly, Nightmare Moon broke from her inner battle and let out a scream. She had one last moment of control before she would lose to Luna, she needed to act now.

SMASH.

….

"….and then he was like WOAH, but then the cake just flew up off the table and flew over and hit Applejack in the face! And that's why I can't throw any more surprise birthday parties for Big Mac!"

"Thanks Pinkie…" Twilight said with a fake smile.

"Wow, that was quite the story Pinkie Pie! It almost sounds too crazy to be true!" Spike said in amazement. Immediately after his comment, though, he continued his previous activity of gazing lovingly at Rarity.

"Well, don't even get me started on crazy! You should have seen Carrot Top's last birthday party, it was like—"

"I'm so sorry to interrupt your… entertaining story Pinkie Pie," Rarity said, leaning over to Twilight., "but when will the princess be here?"

Twilight looked up at the balcony. "I think she should be here now. Probably just getting ready, haha…" She scooted a little bit away from the other unicorn after answering her question.

"Of course! A princess as regal as her needs to look her best for her subjects… I'll go see if I can help!"

And with that, Rarity dashed out of the room and up the stairs. Twilight tried as best as she could to sit far away from the loud and noisy group next to her, even though it did look like they were having a lot of fun… NO! She had to focus on her studies!

"C'mon Princess, please come so I can leave!"

…

Celestia was blinded by a flash of light. Her sister did it! Luna had finally fought off the darkness of Nightmare Moon! She almost lost all hope, and her sister once again surprisedher! She looked up to see her sister. Then she looked down at the ground.

"No…"

….

It was done. Nightmare Moon used the last of her strength to bring her hoof down hard. The core broke with relative ease under the pressure of her iron-strong hoof, and with its destruction came the ending of hope for which Luna thought she could save. Luna's presence in her mind was gone. Nightmare Moon now had full control.

The debris around her continued to spark, and the eye was slowly fading. With his last bit of energy he managed to say, "Luna…moon…pony…." The eye went out. The remaining three just looked at the remains of the space core. He was gone. Luna was gone. And Celestia's hope to save her sister was all but unwavered. The sun princess lowered her head and began to weep. Even Nightmare Moon was silent for a moment, only listening to Celestia's crying.

Celestia only knew that AI core for a short time, but from what she gathered about him, he was just as pony as any of them, with a few interesting aspects about him. She had no idea what he was or where he came from, but she felt something from him; a power that almost matched the power of the Elements of Harmony. Wherever this Space core came from, if they also possessed Elements of Harmony, he was undoubtedly one of its controllers. There was so much that Celestia wanted to know about him… and now he was dead.

It was the moron who broke the silence.

"Wow, so that's what an AI core looks like on the inside. Interesting."

Nightmare Moon stepped over to the princess lying on the ground. "Now, sister… why don't we pay a little visit to our old home of Equestria?"

She leaned over her and touched her horn. Suddenly Celelstia's head shot up; it felt like the life was being drained out of her body and through her horn. In reality, Nightmare Moon was absorbing the remaining magic from the royal alicorn. With the combined power of the two regal pincesses, Nightmare Moon would possess enough magic to teleport herself off the moon and back into Equestria.

"Let's see… why don't we send you back to our old home in the Everfree Forest?" Celestia vanished in a wisp of black smoke. "Oh, and I'll come visit!" she added nonchalantly, as if Celestia could actually hear her. "Wheatley?"

"Yes mam?"

"Let's pay my royal subjects a visit. It's been too long."

"Really? We're going to Equestria? Road trip! Only, there's no roads, so it'd be an air trip, but not an air trip like in a plane, more like a…"

"Shut up!"

And the two disappeared in another wisp of smoke.

…..

"Fillies and gentlecolts, attention please!" Everypony looked up to see the mayor standing high on the balcony. "As mayor of Ponyville, it is my great pleasure to announce the beginning of the Summer Sun Celebration!"

Everypony in the building began to clop their hoofs and cheer.

"In just a few moments, our town will witness the magic of the sunrise and celebrate this; the longest day of the year!"

Twilight looked up at the moon. Now the shadow that vaguely resembled a mare vanished before her eyes. 'Oh no…'

…

Celestia landed on the cold ground of the abandoned castle in the Everfree Forest. She was exhausted, and had no strength either magically or physically to fight the magical strands that bound her hoofs. But now that Luna was gone, Celestia felt something she hadn't felt in a thousand tears; grief. She felt like nothing she did would matter now. There, in the dungeon deep in the castle, Celestia gave up.

….

"And now, it is my great honor to introduce to you the ruler of our land, the very pony who gives us the sun and the moon each and every day…"

….

Nightmare Moon appeared in the courts of the Canterlot castle. She was alone with Wheatley. "Wow! This place is amazing!" screamed the AI core.

"Now, I can't have you going around like this. I will give you power to move freely…"

…..

"…the good, the wise, the bringer of harmony to all of Equestria…"

….

Wheatley turned into a wisp of purple Smoke; Nightmare Moon did this for 3 reasons; so he could serve her in the next few days, so she could keep track of him, and so she could silence him with her magic if need be.

….

"…Princess Celestia…"

Rarity drew the curtains, but the stage was empty. Everypony in the audience gasped.

Twilight was more scared than any other pony. "This can't be good."

…

"Okay now best friend princess mam! Where to first? The park? Bowling?"

"Let's go visit my subjects…"

….

"Stay calm everypony! There must be a reasonable explanation for all of this."

"OOHH, OOHH, I love guessing games!" Pinkie Pie blurted out. "Is she hiding?"

Rarity came out from the back room. "She's GONE!"

….

Nightmare Moon silenced the gathering of smoke that was Wheatley. All she could think now was how she was going to make everypony pay.

…..

"Oh, she's good… AAAAHHHH!"

Everypony turned around to see what Pinkie screamed at. It was a dark blue fog gathering on the balcony.

"Oh no… Nightmare Moon!" Twilight gasped as Spike fainted.

The dark alicorn looked down from her lofty perch. A smile came to her face. After a thousand years, she had won. "Oh my beloved subjects…"


	6. Chapter 6

"Oh, my beloved subjects…it's been so long since I've seen your precious, little, sun-loving faces!" Nightmare Moon had millennia to dream of this moment. All the speeches she prepared in her exile were now going to be put to use.

One of the ponies in the group dared to yell out at the princess, "What did you do with our princess?" The alicorn looked toward the provoking pony; a rather colorful mare. Nightmare took note to make her pay later for rebelling against her.

"Why? Am I not royal enough for you? Don't you know who I am?"

"OOH! More guessing games! Umm…Hokey Smokes? How about Queen Meenie? No! Black Snootie, Black Snootie!"

Nightmare Moon didn't think that she would take such offense to the fact that nopony here remembered her. She would be sure to take care of the ignorant pink one later as well.

"Does my crown no longer count now that I have been imprisoned for a thousand years? Did you not recall the legends? Did you not see the signs?"

"I did! And I know who you are; you're the Mare in the Moon. Nightmare Moon!"

Everypony in the crowd gasped when they heard her name. Nightmare almost answered, but then Wheatley's voice came into her head, "Wow, looks like you're quite the celebrity here. Everypony is shocked to see you here!"

"Well well well… somepony who remembers me. Then you also know why i'm here!"

"You're here to… too…"

The princess noticed that she still struck fear into the ponies hearts. This would make taking over Equestria so much easier. Nightmare began to laugh, the first laugh she ever gave—a laugh that continued to strike fear into the ponies, especially the well-informed unicorn standing in front of her.

"Ha. Haha, why are we laughing, Nightmare?"

'Silence Wheatley! You will have time AFTER this!'

"Remember this day little ponies, for it was your last. From this moment forth, the night will last forever!"

"Seize her! Only she know where the princess is!"

"Stand back, you foals!" Nightmare made quick work of the royal guard who thought for a moment that they ever had a chance to lay a hoof on her. She struck them down with lightning without breaking a sweat. She teleported herself back to the castle in the Everfree Forest. Now that the message had been delivered, there was something even more pressing for the dark alicorn than gloating.

"Wheatley! I require your… assistance." Though she would never say it out loud, she couldn't do this on her own. Besides, he would do anything she asked of him, so what was the worst that could happen?

"Mrs. Nightmare Moon, I am ready for action! What do you need?" called out the wisp of smoke that was Wheatley.

"Soon this world will be mine… but there is one last thing that I need to take care of before I can rise to power."

"And what is that, dear princess?"

"The Elements of Harmony. They were my downfall nearly a thousand years ago. I must destroy them before they are activated once again. Which is where you come in…"

"Now, this is a simple job, simple enough for even someone like you to accomplish without too much difficulty. You will—"

"Aye aye, Princess!"

"Wheatley, I haven't even said what it is," as Nightmare Moon hit her hoof hard on her head.

"Oh… right. Continue."

"You are to—"

"I just wanted you to know that no matter what it was I would have done it for you!"

"Wheatley, are you finished?" Wheatley remained quiet. "Good… now, I want you to—"

"Because you're my friend!"  
>"WHEATLEY SHUT UP! You are to watch over the princess and make sure no ponies stumble into the Everfree Forest out of curiosity." The wisp was quiet. "Is that clear?" No answer. "ANSWER ME!"<p>

"Oh… yes!" The wisp did another flip in the air and floated out of the room. 'Good, he's out of my hair,' thought Nightmare Moon. 'With any luck, nopony will come and Wheatley will do nothing to ruin my plans.' The dark alicorn teleported to Canterlot, ready to overtake the castle and find the Elements of Harmony.

…

"Imma watching the castle for my best friend! I'm going to stop any pony who coooooomes! And then she'll love me as her friend, her bestest bestest friend, who… rhymes with 'comes', rhymes with 'comes'…" Wheatley found patrolling the Everfree Forest boring, so he decided to write a song for his dear friend Nightmare. Rhyming though, as he quickly found out, was not his strong point.

Wheatley decided to forget the verse and skip to the chorus: "NIGHTMARE MOOO-OOON! My best friend in the whole wide world! Nightmare MOOO-OOON—"

A twig snapped.

Wheatley grew quiet as he saw some ponies walking into the forest. Wheatley floated behind a bush just as a bright orange pony walked by. Following it was a white and purple one, a yellow and pink one, a lavender one, a pink one, and a blue one with rainbow hair. The first thing that Wheatley thought was, 'Okay, why do these ponies look like freaky humans that go to those rave parties?' as he searched his database of images that he could compare to the Technicolor equine madness that walked by him. He was so lost in processing images that he didn't hear when the lavender one said to the rest of the group, "Okay girls, the Elements of Harmony are in here, we need to go to the old castle!" He didn't even notice them walk by. It wasn't until 5 minutes went by since they walked past the bush when Wheatley yelled out, "THEY LOOK EXACTLY LIKE—where did they go?"

Mist-Wheatley floated out of the bush. Oh no—what if they were trying to get to the castle? He had to find them and stop them! "Hi-ho Wheatley, away!"

…

"So, none of you have even been in here before?"

"Heaven's no! Just look at it; it's dreadful!"

Wheatley finally found the pony caravan on the side of a cliff. 'This is perfect!' he thought. 'All I need to do is scare them and they'll run back to wherever they came from… do ponies here live in stalls?' Wheatley found some cracks in the side of the mountain and squeezed comfortably in between them.

'Okay, if I just shake up a few of these rocks, it should scare them enough so they won't want to go to the castle! Wheatley moved pebbles here and there, but nothing was happening yet. He dug deeper, but the mountain wasn't moving. He head hoofsteps overhead and started to panic; he needed to act quick, or else they would get away! As he made his way out of the crack, he brushed against a pebble wedged in between the two sides of the crevice, and the entire mountain shifted. It worked!

Somewhat… instead of the ground shifting, the entire face of the cliff came down. Wheatley looked as the mountain fell, taking many of the ponies down the side of the mountain and towards their doom. "Oops… oh well, they're just horses. Except those two, they're unicorns. Wait, unicorns?"

The yellow-pink one and the rainbow one were flying about frantically to rescue their friends. "Hehe, don't worry; there are only two of them, and four other ponies! They can't save all of them…"

Wheatley floated and watched as the pegasi rescued the pink one, then the white one… he saw the orange one try and save the purple one from falling over the cliff, but let her go instead.

"Well, that takes care of that! At least one pony down" Wheatley, happy with his work, returned to patrolling

…

"She lived on the moon, and I did too! They call her Nightmare Moon because she… has a spoon? Curse songs and their rhyming scheme!" Wheatley hadn't had any problems since he scared the ponies with that cliff incident, so he went back to working on his song. Suddenly, Wheatley heard Nightmare Moon's voice telepathically; "Wheatley, please tell me you haven't screwed things up yet?"

"Not at all princess! In fact, I was able to scare some strange ponies back to wherever they came from!"

"Really? How did you manage that?"

"I sent them over a cliff, and I think one of them died. So, I've been working in a smashing song for—"

"You THINK? You mean you didn't see them die?"

"Well…no. I thought they would have died after that."

Nightmare Moon's voice got angrier. "No, you don't think! That's your problem! They could have survived, did you THINK about that?"

"Umm…no?"

"Go out there and find them!"

Wheatley flew off into the forest, and followed the hoofprints leading away from the shattered rocks from the side of the canyon he previously destroyed. There was no purple body. "Dang it, how did she survive?" Wheatley flew off in search of the renegade ponies.

…

After frantically circling the forest for 3 minutes, he found the ponies; or rather, he nearly ran into the (was she a lesbian?) rainbow pony flying through the sky. She seemed to be bragging, saying, "…and once Pinkie and Rarity were safe, me and Fluttershy loop-d-looped around and WOOSH! Saved your life!"

"Okay, I found them… what to do…" he looked ahead and saw another canyon. "Perfect! If I can just knock down those rocks, I'll block their path and…they…will… just climb over it. Okay, think Wheatley… rocks didn't work, how about a direct attack? What's this?"

If Wheatley was still a solid AI core, he would have smacked into a huge furry creature. At first, it seemed to be a bear. Wheatley's subroutines kicked into overdrive, and he decided to use this bear to help him attack the ponies. He transformed himself into a thorn, then proceeded to wedge himself into the creature's paw. As the lion roared in pain, a thought crossed the moronic core's mind; "How did I just change myself into a thorn?"

His thought was cut short when the paw Wheatley was stuck into swung at one of the ponies. "Yeah, you go bear, get them! Get them reall—HOLY CRAP WHAT IS THAT?"

Wheatley now noticed that the bear wasn't a bear. It was a lion-scorpion…thing. 'Honestly, what else is screwed up in this world?' But the creature seemed to be doing its job, so Wheatley tried not to mind. The ponies tried charging, kicking, and the orange one even tried to ride it; but to no avail. The Lion-scorpion Wheatley attacked them with was too powerful for their petty attacks!

"Yes! I did it! They will ne—"suddenly, thorn-Wheatley found himself in a warm and wet cavern. And there was a tongue… "Am I in someone's mouth? EEEEEWWW!"

Even though he was only in the pony's mouth for less than a moment, Wheatley felt like that second would traumatize his memory circuits for the rest of his life. Not only that, but once the thorn was removed, the beast calmed down instantly and let the ponies past. 'Nightmare Moon will not be happy about this,' Wheatley thought as the ponies walked away. It seemed almost like clockwork that Nightmare Moon's voice came back. "Did you take care of the ponies?"

"Oh, yeah… I sure did! Took care of them really good! So good, they didn't not un-run away!"

"Stop talking like an idiot, Wheatley."

'Dang,' thought Wheatley. 'Now I need to stop those ponies or else the princess will be really upset… that could mess up our friendship weekend party.'

"Sometimes, we all just need to be shown a little kindness." The pony group walked away. Wheatley heard what the yellow one just said and scoffed, "Yeah, right. A little kindness? What would that solve? Kindness doesn't get you anything! Nightmare Moon never shows me kindness, and… we're…friend." Wheatley started to think, and he realized that ever since they became friends, he had been belittled and scolded by the princess nearly every time they talked. Was this how friends treated each other? Maybe not…

Wheatley followed the ponies into the darker part of the forest, and nearly lost track of them. He was barely able to follow them by their unusually loud conversations as they walked; talk about the forest, friendship, yada yada yada… this bored Wheatley, so he began to plan his next attempt to stop the multicolor ponies. "Okay, force didn't stop them… and nearly falling to death didn't work… how else can I scare them?"

He heard the ponies complaining about how dark it was; this got Wheatley thinking. "Okay, now I remember from watching the humans in their stasis chambers that they don't like the dark… maybe ponies are the same as humans! So that would mean that they don't like the dark either! Okay now, Wheatley… near death didn't scare them, and force didn't scare them, so maybe scaring them will scare them! Perfect!" Wheatley floated into the trees around the group of ponies and got to work, making the scariest faces from the bark that he could.

…..

Nightmare Moon had nearly turned the Canterlot castle upside down looking for the Elements of Harmony. She had neatly taken care of the guard, searched the Princess's living quarters, checked the vault that hid under the throne, even scoped the archives for any clue as to where the powerful relics were, but all to no avail. She screamed in fury that her sister once again fooled her. "My sister was always one to play games, she infuriates me even now! Where could the Elements be?"


	7. Chapter 7

Wheatley tried. He hummed out the song. He focused as hard as his processor would allow him to. But the laughter was still there, ringing in his audio filters. No matter what he did, no matter where he ran, he could never escape the laughter, the laughter that seemed to follow him through his life, and now beyond the realm of humanity. No matter where he went, no matter what he did, it followed him, burrowed into his CPU like a tumor that no amount of erasing would ever remove.

And every time he heard it, it seemed to ring the same thing in his ear, a ghostly whisper that seemed to come from somewhere he had but was doomed never to remember; "You are an idiot. You are a failure."

It now had occurred to him how right the voices were.  
>…<p>

The girls got up after laughing for what seemed like an eternity in that otherwise horrid forest. 'Why would Celestia ever let a place like this exist in Equestria?' Twilight wondered to herself. Now only was the danger of the animals in the forest itself apparent, and the fact that many fillies would easily lose their way in the labyrinth of trails that circled in on each other was one that the unicorn looked upon as something that can easily be remedied; the place was downright scary. She constantly felt like something was watching her. Her eyes seemed to move of their own accord, scanning the blackness for any sign of unwanted visitors.

Then she saw something, or rather thought she saw something: fog. It seemed to be coming out of the trees. Or was it coming from the ground? What was it? Twilight's scientific curiosity overtook her better judgment, and she began to step towards the mysterious... cloud? 'Yes, it must be a cloud, the way it is centralized so-'

"Uh, Twilight, what'r'u doin'?"

Twilight remembered that there were 5 other mares there. She turned back to the country pony that addressed her. "Oh, I was..." The cloud was floating away. I mean, nothing. Coming!"

"Uh-huh..."

Twilight stole one last look at the cloud as it brushed the top of the trees and floated far ahead of the group. Rainbow Dash and... that real shy Pegasus, what was her name?- didn't seem to notice. But as she watched it a strange feeling overcame her. It didn't crawl down her spine inch by inch like fear. It didn't twitch in her tail and horn like curiosity. It panged her heart and seemed to cause her entire chest to hurt as if she had been kicked by a small pony. But why on earth was she feeling pity?  
>...<p>

Wheatley knew that she was rough around the edges, but he was the closest thing to a friend that she had, so Nightmare Moon would never really abandon him. Would she?

He had done nothing but fail, as he had always done at every moment in his life. He knew now how pathetic he was. He was garbage. Even that idiot of a core was better than him, and HE was still on the moon, in pieces. But what if that act of martyrdom the space core endured was merely foreshadowing Wheatley's own unfolding of events?

No, he had to think of something. It had to have been somebody's fault. 'It was that pink one; yeah... she has...powers? No, that's stupid.' Laughter. "STOP LAUGHING!" The laughter took away his focus. He did not realize that he was now his solid self. Neither did he realize that he stopped inches away from the formidable alicorn he called 'friend'.

"Where did you hide them, sister?" She seemed to be talking to the wind. "I know they're here, I was here with you when you USED THEM ON ME!"

"Umm..." Wheatley was about to ask the princess if she required help, but his offer was drowned out by Nightmare Mon's roar.

"HOW DARE YOU SNEAK UP ON ME, CRETIN!"

She continued to glare at him for an eternity that lasted a few seconds. Wheatley was certain that the daggers coming from her stone-cold blue eyes caused some internal damage. She finally broke eye contact, however, and let out a deep sigh. "I assume you being here means you taken care of any nuisances that may try and stop me?"

Wheatley chuckled. "Funny you should mention that..."

"Oh, is it now?"

"Yeah, because there's still those 6 mares coming here, I mean, I did cut off that water lizard's mustache so maybe that took care of them, he did make quite a splash in that river and I don't think many creatures can cross a river that turbulent, unless they-"

"Wait; you cut off a mustache? That's your big plan? You were supposed to KILL them!"

"Well, I tried, but..."

"I give you part of my power, and THIS is the best you can do? Can you even kill somebody when you are infinitely more powerful than them?"

"Well..." The AI core thought back to Chell. "I don't know."

"You are completely USELESS! Why did I ever think you could do this? Such a pathetic, worthless MORON!"

"But... we're friends, right?"

The walls shook. Wheatley began to glow, and a wisp of smoke drifted out of him. He felt weak. What had happened? As an AI, he had programs built into his processor so he can feel sleepiness and become drowsy. But this was different. As the Smoke drifted towards Nightmare, he found it very hard to breathe. His vision blurred until he could barely discern the mare standing in front of him from the wall. If the voices were laughing at them, he could not hear them over the incessant ringing in his ears. What was happening to him?

'You're dying.' The truthfulness hit him hard, though not as hard as the pain his sensory fiber optics were feeling. They were scalding hot and completely numb at the same time. He could barely make out what the evil alicorn was doing to the ground around him as he was rolling around in pain. He could barely discern the fact that he was slowly descending into the ground. But her words, her last words, echoed.

"I will never be your friend."

Wheatley fell... fell...  
>...<p>

"Luna... Luna... Please... come back."

It was quiet in the dungeon. The royal princess rarely had time alone, and she learned to love the peace she found in a moment of silence. But this was pure agony. This quiet that was forced upon her allowed the questions she ran from for a thousand years to catch up with her, and the magic chains kept her in place to answer each question with a truth that hurt more than any weapon.

'Was banishing my sister, the only family I had left, the right choice?'

'No.'

'Would she have succumbed to her evil side if I took more time to help her?'

'No.'

'Was this my fault?'

'Yes.'

'Do I deserve this?'

'Yes.'

She had never been one to give up. Discord never phased her, and she was able to stop Nightmare Moon before she caused too much damage. But now, the princess of the sun could see that she was a monster just like them. How else could she have been able to send her own flesh and blood to such a place?

"Luna... please..."

Her crying was silenced by a series of clangs followed by a deep THUD. Using what little power she could muster, she lit the tip of her horn to reveal a ball. The same metal ball she met on the moon. If she had felt anger towards him before, it dissipated instantly. Instead, she stared at it as if it wasn't there, her mouth slightly ajar.

It had only occurred to her later that she could hear him breathing. It was pained, and would sometimes stop for minutes before he gasped for air, only to stop soon after. He was dying. And Celestia knew that he may deserve it, but she could never bring someone to death, no matter what the crime. She focused her magic on the part of him that felt most like a heart, and tried to breathe life into him.

No sooner did she start than did the orb open its eyes and catch its breath. In the moment they made eye contact, both remembered each other, what they did, and both found the strength to sit up.

"You!" they cried in one voice.

"You were the one that was with Luna when she..."

"And you're the sister that sent her to the moon."

If she had strength, she would have thrown him across the room for reminding her. But depression soon overcame her again, its weight forcing her to the ground in a slump. "Yes, that is me."

It was quiet. They lay in the dungeon, thinking of a million things to say to each other in silence. What was the use? What could possibly be said?

"Hey, listen."

Celestia took Wheatley's advice and tried to hear what it was she was listening for. It was her sister.

"...it's them, or us!"

"I'm sorry, princess."

Wheatley broke the silence. Celestia heard the simple apology from this being that she would like nothing more than to smash to a million pieces, and realized the sincerity of it.

"I'm sorry about Luna. I'm the one that did this to her. I... I just wanted a friend. I guess I was so scared of losing another friend that I... didn't care who I hurt."

Celestia had a million things to say to Wheatley, and all of them came in the form of yelling. But before she could respond, another answer escaped her lips; "I forgive you."

At first, she was shocked at what she said, but soon realized that she meant it. She repeated herself, her voice a little stronger and more self-assured than before. "I forgive you. And this isn't completely your fault, either."

"No, it is."

"I'm the one that sent my own sister to the moon and left her there for a thousand years. What kind of monster does that?"

The dungeon got quiet once more. They tried to listen for Nightmare moon, but instead heard the band of mares:

"One, two, three, four, there's only five..."

"Where's the sixth?"

"The book said when the five are present, a spark will cause the sixth element to be revealed."

"Did you miss her?" Wheatley asked.

"I'm sorry?" The bluntness of his question shocked and confused Celestia, and it came so unexpectedly.

"Luna. When she was on the moon, did you... miss her?"

Celestia sighed. Tears became to come to her eyes, and not even her mane could hide it. "Not a day went by when I didn't think about her. I tried to visit her, check on her every time I could, hoping I could bring her back, that we could be together again, but every time I would have to leave her on that rock, all alone, and I hated doing it, and I hate myself for doing it to her. She's my little sister, after all."

And then Celestia, the regal alicorn, ruler of Equestria and defender of Harmony, lay down and cried in the dungeon under the ruins of the old castle. Tears flowed freely now from her eyes, and she now did nothing at all to hide this fact. She knew she must have looked pathetic, but she didn't care. She deserved it.  
>Once again, it was Wheatley who spoke to the Princess and broke the quiet.<p>

"You are not a monster. If you want a monster, you should have seen my old boss! She would keep humans in stasis for hundreds of years even, just to pull them out when she needed them and kill them. She would joke about how much fun it was. And she was quite the bully, always manipulating and trying to turn people against each other. I mean, one time there were these two scientists recalibrating the Deadly Neurotoxin intake, and she…" Wheatley saw this tangent was not helping the alicorn. What I guess I'm saying, is you are not a monster."

"You mean that?"

"You obviously love her. You did your best. Even now, you seem to be all she thinks about, and the same was true on the moon as well. You did nothing wrong. Unlike me, everything I do, everything I touch, I mess up. I try to be friends with Luna, and I changed her into Nightmare Moon. I try and stop those ponies from coming, and accomplish nothing. I even forgot to tell you how to undo those handcuffs, I'm so stupid all the time."

Celestia snapped out of her crying with Wheatley's last statement. "What? Handcuffs?"

"Yeah, those things around your hooves? Oh, right, you must call them 'hoofcuffs', right?"

"No, this is a magic binding spell, Nightmare Moon cast on me. I am powerless against it without a counter spell."

Wheatley was quiet for a moment. He seemed to be in shock. "So, you're telling me that you DON'T see a pair of Smith and Wesson Model 110 Special Security Chain-Linked Nickel Handcuffs?" Celestia was dead quiet, not understanding a word Wheatley was saying. "Okay, humor me for a moment; Put your horn right..." Wheatley used a laser pointer, which he had only just discovered he had, to point out where he saw the key hole on the handcuffs. "...there. Now, use your magic and make like a key, yes... now, twist it thirty degrees... nope, too far... THERE! Yes! Now, pull your head out, and..."

-Click-

The magical ropes immobilizing Celestia disappeared into the wind, and she gained control of her legs again. "That was amazing! How did you do that?"

"I... have no idea whatsoever!"

Celestia jumped before she could question Wheatley. She heard the sound of rocks falling. She thought she heard Twilight up there. "We'll save the questions for later, Wheatley! We have to go!" The princess grasped the large white ball firmly in her mouth, kicked a fake wall back to reveal a spiral staircase, and began to run.  
>...<p>

"The spark ignited inside me when I realized that you all are my friends. You see, Night Mare Moon, when those Elements are ignited by the... the spark, that resides in the heart of us all, it creates the sixth element: the element of... magic."

As Twilight tapped into the powers of the Elements of Harmony, she could not notice a white alicorn in the dark stairway behind them, nor did she notice a tear come to her eye.  
>…<p>

"Woah woah woah, what's happening!"

"She did it. She exceeded my expectations. Again."

"But what's with the rainbow cannon thing? Is this… normal for talking ponies?"

"Only when those ponies are wielding the Elements of Harmony."

"Oh… so like tungsten?"

Celestia smiled at the orb. He was smarter than he appeared, but he was very naïve in a lot of things. But most of all, he wanted a friend. Was it really his fault that he never learned how to make friends because no one ever showed him compassion? Perhaps, but Celestia saw a bit of herself in Wheatley's glass optical lens, and if there was one thing she could sympathize with, it was his earnest desire to be forgiven for things that he did to Luna. "Look at those six ponies. What do you see?"

Wheatley stared at the ponies. His eyes narrowed as he focused each pony down to their individual hairs on their head. "I see a cowgirl pony, a pink fluffy… I'm assuming that's a girl as well…one that looks like it went through a bleach washing, a nerd, a pink emo, and a lesbian… do lesbians exist?"

"What?"

"Umm… never mind."

"Look closer, you can learn a lot from them."

Wheatley's stare turned into a glare, as he processed every single thing he could notice about the ponies; hair color, eye size, proportion of head to hoof, width of stance… "I got nothing."

"Honestly, kindness, laughter, generosity, loyalty, and magic. These are the Elements of Harmony. They are the source of happiness and friendship everywhere. You tell me that you cannot make any friends, but maybe if you change your approach, you would be more successful?"

Wheatley took this new information in. "Wait, you mean I don't have to be manipulative to make friends?"

Celestia's smile spoke a million words to Wheatley, even if he didn't understand most of those words. Fortunately, she explained, "No. In fact, even though you have made a few mistakes before, you have shown me considerable loyalty, kindness, and honesty, and I would consider you a friend."

"You mean it?" Wheatley's memory units opened a file from Earth's history, a man named Suess who wrote "his heart grew three sizes that day." He wasn't sure what it meant, but right now it sounded very nice.

"So," Wheatley sang to his new friend, "Aren't you going to see your sister?"

The princess's eyes closed as she contemplated seeing her sister once again. What would she say? What can she say? But after a thousand years, she wanted nothing more than to hug her and tell her that everything will be fine. "Yes." Celestia walked into the room, and at long last, was reunited with Luna.


	8. Chapter 8

Luna hated being back here again. After being reunited with her sister, only a few minutes passed before she was sent to the moon. The memories of what happened here, the years that passed… Luna shuddered at the thought. But she was here for a reason. She had to find him.

Both she and Wheatley knew that forgiveness would be something very hard for the AI core to earn, and even though he had promised that he turned over a new leaf, Luna would be the last person to trust him so easily. The fact that Celestia wanted to bring him back to Canterlot still sat uneasily for the princess of the night, but she knew her sister had good reason for doing this, and if her sister trusted that monster of an idiot, than she would tolerate his presence.

However, he did offer sincere news for Luna; "You know, he's not dead. Even in pieces, our memory and personality matrices are stored in an unbreakable casing made of titanium, and have power sources that can last for eons."

"So what does this mean?"

"You can save him."

"Luna scanned the debris of what was left of the space core, looking for the matrices that he described to her. As she sifted through the rubble, she couldn't help but feel guilt for what she did, even if she was under the control of Nightmare Moon at the time. She just hoped that Space Core would forgive her.

She found the housing, and teleported back to Canterlot.  
>….<p>

"Is there anything we can do, sister?"

"I don't know. Be patient, Luna, we haven't tried everything."

"But we have no idea how this machinery works, what can we possibly do?"

"Funny you should mention that…" called out Wheatley from an enormous stack of books.  
>…..<p>

It has been a few weeks since Nightmare Moon came to Ponyville. Twilight and her friends had a quick meeting with the princesses as they briefly explained the whole "elements of harmony" thing to them. They even met Wheatley, who told the ponies everything that happened, and again apologized for everything that happened.

"Now, we must return to Canterlot, there is a lot that needs to be fixed, and we've told you all that we can. We will have to continue this later." Celestia left them on the outskirts of the Everfree Forest, and the six new friends how life will ever be normal for them.

But as always in Ponyville, life quickly returned to commonplace. Twilight was busily reorganizing her library, Applejack was repainting the barn, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash ran errands to Cloudsdale, and Rarity was busy in her boutique with what she called "the latest and greatest design the world has ever seen".

Night came around, and the ponies who were previously busy found themselves walking down the street together towards Sugarcube Corner, where Pinkie was celebrating what she termed a "monthaversary".

"Does she never tire of throwing these parties?" Rarity sighed annoyed, though the makeup and dress she wore told the others that she spent a few hours at least preparing herself.

Rainbow swooped from overhead, "Hey, at least it isn't as last-minute as that Dayaversary, right?" The group chuckled, and walked inside.  
>The turnout was larger than they expected, with at least 20 other ponies present. They quickly found their flamboyant friend by the punchbowl and immediately began talking about this and that, playing games and dancing. Even as most of the partygoers left, the six continued to talk.<p>

Suddenly, everything became quiet when somepony walked in. Twilight turned to see it was her mentor, Princess Celestia herself. By her side was Luna, who seemed a little more annoyed than her older sister. Twilight wondered what was on Luna's mind when two other ponies walked in and took their place between the princesses.

Nopony knew who these two were, or why they were with such prominent ponies. They were both grey with grey manes and tails, standing slightly shorter than any other pony around them. One had bright yellow eyes that seemed very excited as they darted in every direction, racing to see everything in the room as fast as they could see. His mane was very messy, yet his thick glasses seem to make up for his unkempt appearance, giving him an overall classy look. His cutie mark showed a yellow planet with two rings around it.

The other one, a unicorn, had dark blue eyes that continually dart back towards Luna, who was refusing to make contact with the mysterious pony. His hair, unlike his counterpart, was very smooth and appeared to be waxed flat with a very shiny hair gel. He was very scrawny, making him seem very fragile. Twilight was afraid that if she shook his hand too hard, he would break. On his hind was a jumbled mess of question marks.

"Hello again, my little ponies. I see that you are enjoying yourself!"

Twilight, being accustom to company with the Princess, responded; "Hello Princess, hat brings you to Ponyville? Did you need my report on friendship this week?"

"No, that's not necessary right now. I actually came to introduce you to a few friends—" Luna scoffed. "—A few friends of mine. This is our newest astronomy expert in the Canterlot Library."

"Hello there, my name is SPAAAAAACE… Chaser. Sorry about that. My name is Space Chaser, it's a pleasure to meet you all." He spoke with a deep voice that seemed to speak a million words an hour. 'My, this pony seems full of contradictions' thought Twilight.

"And you've already met Wheatley here."

"Wait, you mean Wheatley that orb thing that caused all of this?"

Celestia sighed. "Yes, but he's a changed pony… literally."

"How is this possible?" Twilight asked. The other ponies were far behind her, now scared of the pony that brought back Nightmare Moon and almost destroyed Equestria.

"That's actually a very interesting story, and I think Wheatley can explain the theory better than I can."

"Thank you, Princess. Now, before I was a pony, and before I came here, I was that orb that you saw, an Artificial Intelligence. A really smart pony that lived in a computer…." Wheatley began to share his life history, and the time he spent with GLaDOS, and the things he did and learned. "During my time in her mainframe—body— I picked up her talent for manipulating other people, as I unfortunately did with Luna over there." Wheatley waved over to Luna, who rebutted with a vicious scowl. "She still hasn't forgiven me."

"Do you blame her? I'm not sure if I forgive you quite yet."

"Yes, and I'm so sorry Twilight, and I'll do everything I can to fix this!"

"Wheatley was misguided, Twilight. I'm sure you'll see that he is sincerely sorry for everything he's done. And now that he is my student, I hope that I can—"

"HE'S YOUR WHAT?" Twilight yelled.

"My student, Twilight. He's actually very gifted, and came up with the spell that changed himself and saved Space Chaser's life."

"Yeah, Space Chaser over there is actually an AI like I am, and I was able to transfer him from his orb to this new body."

Twilight began to tense up. "Wait, he's like you? But he seems so different, so… nice. Is he evil like you?"

Wheatley was noticeably bothered by twilight's judgment of him. "No, he's not… evil, he was trying to help Luna… and neither am I, I just… made a mistake…. But anyway, listen!"

Twilight interrupted again. "And how did you make yourself a body? I don't know any spell that can do this."

"That's what I'm trying to tell you!" Wheatley was now very annoyed and on the verge of yelling. The other ponies jumped. Wheatley knew that his situation was not getting any better. He sighed. "When I was in GLaDOS's body, I also gained her vast knowledge of mechanics and engineering. Then last month, when Luna… I mean, Nightmare Moon… gave me her magical powers, the two mixed in my mainframe. Now, I see magic as a machine or series of machines." Twilight looked lost, and Wheatley could tell.

"Here' I'll explain: When you levitate something, you see the object glow, but what I see is you creating a series of pulleys that lift the object. The heavier the object, the more pulleys you must create, the more you have to concentrate on the individual pulleys, and the harder it is. Or when you teleport yourself, I see a giant slingshot. The farther you have to go, the more the band must be stretched, and the more power it takes to teleport that far… do you understand?"

Twilight was quiet. She understood, but was still shocked and slightly appalled that such an evil pony, the one that brought back Nightmare Moon, is not only in Canterlot, but a STUDENT of the PRINCESS, just like her!

"Twilight, please understand that Wheatley has helped us understand magic theory, and is a very bright mind… which is why I'd like for him to stay here in Ponyville."

"WHAT? Why?" Twilight was never one to question the Princess, but she was not willing to become neighbors with Wheatley either.

"Twilight, a word."

Twilight hung her head as she dragged her hoofs over to the corner nook that Celestia lead her to. In this time, both Wheatley and Space Chaser made their way over to the other ponies.

"Twilight, I thought you would like to have another scientist in Ponyville to work with. What's wrong?"

"I don't know… I just… he brought back Nightmare Moon! Can we trust him?"

"He isn't perfect, but he's a good pony. That's why I want him to come here."

"Please, can you explain why?"

"He's a brilliant mind, but he has never had a friend in his life. Not by choice, I add. Everyone he met has either treated him with anger or belittlement, so that's all he knows. That is his fault. I hope that you and the other Elements of Harmony could teach him how to be a friend. I just hoped that you girls would be more willing than… this." She pointed towards the group Twilight left behind. Space Chaser seemed to be warming up to the ponies around him, and pinkie was already comfortable enough to offer him a piece of cake. Wheatley, however, was outside of the circle, either by choice of by the other ponies she did not know. She saw his eyes… full of misery and loneliness. She knew that look well. But were these really the same eyes of the unicorn that manipulated an alicorn?

"I… will try."

"Thank you, Twilight. You never disappoint me." 'Now, if only it were this easy to convince Luna,' Celestia thought.


	9. Chapter 9

Twilight walked up to the grey pony. "Umm… hi, Wheatley."

"Hi, Twilight. Um… how are you? Isn't the sun lovely?"

"It's night."

"Oh… really? Whoops."

Twilight was glad that somepony chose that moment to tap her on the shoulder. It was Derpy.

"Hey Twilight, sorry if I'm interrupting."

"No, it's fine! What is it?"

"I was just wondering… who that was?" She said, pointing at the grey pony that was now busily sharing stories with everypony in Sugarcube Corner.

Twilight sighed. "Oh, that's Space Chaser."

"Do you know where he lives?"

"Actually, he just moved here. As did Wheatley."

"Really that's great! He's really cute!"

"What?"

"I mean…. His eyes are so dreamy—er… his body's so steamy—No, I'm saying… his mane is so creamy… Gotta go!" She ran so fast she seemed to disappear in a wisp of smoke. Twilight thought she saw her blush, and she thought she understood why.  
>….<p>

Dark… cold… barren… So much dirt… and rocks… a light in the distance… food…  
>…<p>

"And then WHOOSH! We were on the moon, in space, where there's no gravity and it's so quiet you can hear a blade of grass hit a piece of wood!"

"Wow…"

"That's sounds amazing, Space Chaser…"

Twilight didn't know why all the ponies were infatuated by this pony. He was just a normal pony with a playfully flirty mane, with bright yellow eyes that were as warm as the sun… who had been on so many adventures…. Who was the funniest pony she had ever met, and who she hoped was free Friday night… dammit.  
>"Yup, me and my buddy Wheatley were stuck… in SPACE! Ooh, that word still gives me the chills every time I say it; space. Did you know that where we come from, we have telescopes that can see so far we can see trees on other planets billions of miles away?"<br>"That's so cool…"  
>"I'd love to be on another planet with you…"<br>"No, with me!"  
>Wheatley wondered how it was possible for the Space Core, or rather Space Chaser, could become so likable so quickly. He was just about to chime in on the story when—<br>BANG  
>The door slammed open to reveal a hideous creature. She appeared to be an orange and white pony, with black hair that lay flat on her face and back. She had hideous growths on her hoofs, which were also mutated beyond recognition. Her front legs were noticeably skinnier than her hind legs, which explained why she only walked on her back limbs. There was also a unusual limb coming out of her calves, a silver bone that continued down to the bottom of her feet, giving her a literal bounce to her step. She was obviously scared by the way she gawked at the ponies, but no sound came from her mouth. Wheatley and Space Chaser sprang up at the sight of her.<br>"CHELL!"


	10. Chapter 10

Well, this is the end of this story. Thanks for all the love and support, and for liking it overall! If you really want more, I strongly urge you to go to my FIMfiction page as I update more frequently there. Oh, and i'm well into the second book! Look out for it here, too!

My Page~!

user/matrixjorel


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